it were fit to do so a great man of our own Church who was one also of great Moderation towards diffenters and who when he came to dye never that I heard of repented the great Latitude or comprehenfiveness of his Charity May the Mantle of that Elijah fall on Elisha his Successor as I hope it will and on all the Fathers and Brethren of the Church of England as I pray it may that so there may be no complaining in our Streets that so peace may be within our Walls and Prosperity within our Palaces that there may be glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace to men and good will 7. Consid That the Parliament in the beginning of the late War declared for the defence and safety of his Majesties person and their abhorreney to be thought to design either the deposition or death of his sacred Majesty Or else it had been impossible for them to have gained the people as they did Presently after the Battel at Edge-hill in a declaration by them published they express their congratulation for the safety of his Majesties Person and his Children and their sorrow that they had been in any danger there In which Battel t is credibly reported that when Sir William Balfore who commanded a Brigade of Horse in that Battel was ready to charge part of the Royal Army with his Horse perceiving his Majesty to be amongst them in that Squadron and fearing least his Royal Person might have been otherwise endangered wheeled off without attempting to make any impression there whereupon by some he was complained of but acquitted from censure or blame by the Parliament And I my self knew some since Non-conformist Ministers who made it their business to stir up some of the Commanders of the old Army to join with some of his Majesties Commanders and to have endeavoured the rescue of his Majesties Person after he was scized on in the Isle of Wight Sure it was the fear the Army had that the Parliament would agree with his Majesty which made them so garble the Parliament in December 1648. The London Presbyterian Ministers laboured to save his Majesties Crown and Life And the Ministers of some Lectures in the Country framed and presented to the General and his Councel of Officers their humble advice with all zeal and earnestness disswading them with Scripture Reason and the Conscience of Oaths from deposing his Majesty or embrewing their hands in his blood It was no Protestant Minister or Presbyter but a Roman Priest and Confessor we are told that when he saw the fatal stroke given flourished with his Sword and said Now the greatest Enemy we have in the world is gone And how Dr. Peter Du Moulin and upon what grounds laid the Murther of his late Majesty on the Jesuits the Reader may see in his Answer to Philanax Anglicus pag. 58 59. c. And if the Testimony of the French may be accepted and why not for Standers by often see more than Gamesters we have the Letters of Monsieur Daille of Monsieur Gache and of the Marchioness of Turin to clear the Presbyterians from this horrid Act. And some there are at home who are so noble though themselves fought under the Royal Standard as yet acknowledge that the Presbyterians hated this Murther as much as themselves 8. Consid That the Nou-conforming Presbyterians had both their hearts and hands in the Restauration of His Majesty to His Royal Throne First the English Presbyterians did concur with and assist the Scots some in person others with their Purses most with their Prayers in bringing His Majesty to His ancient Kingdom of Scotland in the year 1650. for which endeavours Mr. Love and Mr. Gibbous lost their Heads by the Axe and for which Zeal for His Majesty many more were imprisoned and condemned though not executed Mr. Cawton was Indicted of High Treason for Praying for His Majesty that now is as King of England in those dayes Mr. George Firmin in Print tells us that he and some others in those times Prayed even in their Congregations for the afflicted Royal Family Mr. Kirby a Yorkshire Minister was brought up to London and imprisoned for Praying publickly for His Majesty by Name Yea so great and publick was the London Ministers Zeal and Loyalty that there was a Pamphlet Printed entituled A Mourning Lecture for our Morning Lecturers calling them the cloudy Clergy and Beadsmen for the King of Scotland Most certain it is also that our French Neighbours the Protestants there looked on the Presbyterians of England a little before His Majesties Restauration as possessed of the power and sitting at the Hem in England That illustrious Assembly i. e. the Parliament saith Monsieur Drelincourt in his Letter from Paris April 3. 1660. afterward Printed who would have preserved to the King his life and his Royalty was without doubt very far from designing to rob his Children of that right which is conveyed to them by a continued Succession in their Royal Family for many Ages And again in the same Letter he thus expresses himself God intrusts at this day you Presbyterians the Gentlemen now in Power with the honour and Reputation of our Church for if without the intervening of any Forreign Power they recall this Prince and seat Him in His Throne they acquire to themselves and their posterity immortal Glory and stop their Mouths for ever who charge us falsely as enemies of Royalty make appear that the Maxime of No Bishop No King is injuriously imputed to us Now what was desired by this Letter was done within a short time and by the Power Interests and Endeavours of those here called Presbyterians The Royalists at that time not for want of Zeal or Loyalty but through Policy and Prudence not appearing so publickly least thereby upon that account or occassion the desigh should miscarry 9. Consid Many Bishops Clergymen and Scholars though Nonconformists to the late times yet injoyed Places or Profit notwithstanding The Bishops by Ordinance of Parliament were to have for their Lives 200 l per ann each of them Bishop Morton that Learned Bishop of Durham received a Thousand pound which was given him by the Parliament and with which he purchased if I mistake not an Annuity of 200 l per ann for his life The Arch-bishop of Armagh Bishop Brownrig Bishop Skinner had places of Imployment and Profit in those times Dr. Saunderson afterwards Bishop of Lincoln kept Boothby Pagnel Parsonage during the Troubles Many in several Colledges in Cambridge kept their Places without ever taking the Covenant Dr. Collins was suffer'd to keep his Place of Regius Professor without ever taking the Covenant So did all the Fellows of Emmanuel Colledge except Dr. Soreby who was Ejected on another accompt continue in their Fellowships without taking the Covenant Some Fellows were put into Trinity Colledge by Ordinance of Parliament without having the Covenant imposed on them as I have heard Further in the Visitation of the University
Henry the Third sent Armies against them to destroy them and yet they came to his help as soon as they saw him in danger Is it not true that they saved his life at Tours and delivered him from an extream peril Is it not true that they never forsook him nor his Successors in the midst of the revolt and Rebellion of most part of the Kingdom raised by the Pope and the greatest part of the Clergy Is it not true that they have assisted him in all his Battels and helped much to raise the Crown again which was ready to fall Is it not true that they which persecuted the late King Henry the Fourth injoy this day the Fruits of the Services done by the Protestants Such a Judgment saith Dr. Du Moulin is of good weight coming from a wise King who was truly informed of the business of his Neighbours And if so then Dr. P. H. surely was mis-informed himself and hath misrepresented the Case of the French Protestants to the world in his late History of the Presbyterians as he hath also done of the Netherland and Scots For the Reformed Religion saith Dr. P. Du Moulin was spread in the Netherlands over the Seventeen Provinces many years before there was any thought of making an Union against the Spaniards and neither was that Union made upon the score of Religion but of State for maintaining their Franchises against the oppression of Spain As it was sufficiently justified by their chusing Francis Duke of Alenson a Roman Catholick for their Prince So here for a farther clearing of the Netherlands from Rebellion Mr. Cambden tells us that after Reasons had been urged before Queen Elizabeth to prove them Rebels Her Majesty resolved that it was both Christian Piety to relieve the afflicted Netherlanders embracers of the same Religion She professed and Wisdom to provide for the safety of Her People And again he tells us that Anno 1587. the States in Parliament where were the Bishops also congratulated Queen Elizabeth as for good Laws so for the French King and the Netherlands relieved 'T is worth the observation that Queen Elizabeth and the Parliament of England looked on the Presbyterians in Holland as of the same Religion with themselves notwithstanding the difference in Church-Government and Ceremonies Mr. Gattaker observes out of John Bodin an Ingenuous and Judicious Writer and a Papist himself an Author of good note amongst Papists and Protestants both a notable commendation of Geneva See Method Histor cap. 6. page 245 That of the Genevians saith Bodin is landable if ought in any Nation and that which makes a Common-wealth to flourish if not in Riches and Majestical Empire yet sure in Piety and Virtue to wit the Pontificial Censure so he calls the Ecclesiastical or Presbyterial Discipline In that City therefore no Harlotry no Drunkenness no Dancings no Beggars no idle persons are found The aforesaid Mr. Gattaker to clear those of the Genevian way from Sedition tells us a Story of Bishop Elmor Bishop of London in Queen Elizabeths Reign viz. that when one Preaching at Paul's Cross had inveighed bitterly against the Puritans as a crew of seditious and turbulent persons and had affirmed the Puritans to be worse than the Papists No quoth the Bishop he said not therein aright for the Puritans if they had me amongst them would cut my Rochet only but the Papists would cut my Throat The same Author Mr. Gattaker tells us that his Successor Bishop Vaughan when another in the same place was no less eager in the same Argument the Bishop said to a Gentleman of his inward Acquaintance who Dined that day with him as the Gentleman himself told Mr. Gattaker I wish I could have had the Preachers Tongue to day for some space of time in my Pocket The way is not to convert or convince that party by Invectives and untruths It is true they affect not the present form of Government they are for another but they seek it by Petition not by Insurrection or Sedition And further to balance Dr. P. H's testimony against the Calvinians and Presbyterians and to undeceive well-minded persons who read his History of Presbyterians and believe him on that subject as much as they do his Comment on the Creed it self It will not be amiss to cite here some passages out of Mr. Bedel afterwards Bishop Bedel in his Answer to Wadsworth who objected against the Reformed Religion what Dr. P. H. doth against the Calvinian Reformers viz. That they were the cause of Sedition and Rebellion You have wronged saith Mr. Bedel those you have named and either lightly believed or unjustly surmised your self touching Luther Calvin Knox the French and the Hollanders when you make them the raisers of Rebellion and shedders of blood whose blood hath been shed like water in all parts of those Countreys against all Laws of God and Man against the Edicts and publick Faith till necessity enforced them to stand for their lives Pag. 136. As for the War in Germany saith the same Author it began not till after Luthers death neither was it a Rebellion of the Protestants the truth is they stood for their Lives The Emperor with the help of the Popes both Money and Arms intended to root them out and although at the first the Emperor did not avow his raising Arms against them to be for Religion yet the Pope in his Jubilee published upon this occasion did not let to declare to the world that himself and Caesar had concluded a League to reduce the Hereticks by force of Arms to the obedience of the Church and therefore all should pray for the good success of the War So the same Author pag. 124. As for Calvin he saith he did not by his unquietness and Ambition revolve the State of Geneva unjustly expelling and depriving the Bishop of Geneva and other Temporal Lords of their due obedience and ancient inheritance for he came to Geneva 1536. but Bodin in his Second Book de Repub. Chap. 6. affirmed and that in the same year Geneva was established a State Aristocratical which was he saith 1528. Geneva changed from a Monarchy Pontifical into an estate Popular governed Aristocratically although that long before the Town pretended to be free against the Earl and against the Bishop c. Further whereas Mr. Wadsworth layes to the Hugonots and Ghenses of France and Holland the raising of Civil Wars shedding of Blood occasioning Rebellions Rapines Desolations principally for their new Religion Mr. Bedel afterwards Bishop Bedel Answers pag. 132. These poor people having endured such barbarous Cruelties Massacres and Martyrdoms as scarce the like can be shewed in all Stories are now accused by you as the Authors of all they suffered No no Mr. Wadsworth they be the Laws of the Roman Religion that are written in blood It is the bloody Inquisition and the perfidious violating of the Edicts of Pacification that have set France and Flanders in combustion An evident Argument may be for Flanders
that those Ghenses which you mention were no Calvinists as you are mis-informed the chief of them were Roman Catholicks as namely Count Egmont and Horn who both lost their Heads for standing and yet only by Petition against the new Impositions and the Inquisition which was sought to be brought in upon those Countreys And after pag. 134. you would know quo Juri the Protestants Wars in France and Holland are justified First saith Mr. Bedel the Law of Nature which not only alloweth but inforceth every living thing to defend it self from violence Secondly that of Nations which permitteth those that are in the Protection of others to whom they owe no more than an Honourable acknowledgment in case they go about to make themselves absolute Soveraigns and usurp their Liberty to stand for the same And if a lawful Prince which saith he is not yet Lord of his Subjects lives and goods shall attempt to despoil them of the same under colour of reducing them to his own Religion after all humble Remonstrances they may stand upon their own guard and being assailed may repell force with force as did the Machabees under Antiochus In which case notwithstanding the person of the Prince himself ought always to be sacred and inviolable as was Sauls to David And lastly if the enraged Minister of a lawful Prince will abuse his Authority against the Fundamental Laws of the Countrey it is no Rebellion to defend themselves against reserving still their obedience to their Soveraign inviolate These are the rules of which the Protestants that have born Arms in France and Flanders and the Papists also both there and elsewhere as in Naples that have stood for the defence of their Liberties have served themselves how truly I esteem it hard for you and me to determine unless we were more throughly acquainted with the Laws and Customs of those Countreys then I for my part am Once for the Low Countreys the world knows that the Dukes of Burgundy were not Kings or absolute Lords of them which are holden partly of the Crown of France and partly of the Empire and of Holland in particular they were but Earls And whether that title carries with it such a Soveraignty as to be able to give new Laws without their consents to impose Tributes to bring in Garrisons of Strangers to build Forts assubject their Honours and Lives to the dangerous trial of a new Court proceeding without form or figure of Justice any reasonable man may well doubt themselves do utterly deny it So far Mr. Bedel afterwards Bishop Bedel Yea Doctor Heylin speaking of the Seventeen Provinces in his History of the Presbyterians pag 96. Grants that all of them were Priviledged so far as to secure them all without a manifest violation of their Rights and Liberties from the fear of Bondage But none so amply priviledged saith he as the Province of Brabant to which it had been granted by some well-meaning but weak Prince amongst them that if their Prince or Duke by which name they call'd him should by strong hand attempt the violation of their ancient Priviledges the Peers and People might proceed to a new Election and put themselves under the Clientele or Patronage of some juster Governor D. P. H. Hist of the Presb. p. 96. As for the Stirs Broils Seditions and Murthers in Scotland which Mr. Wadsworth imputes to Knox and the Geneva Gospellers as he calls them Mr. Bedel before cited p. 128 129. Answers They might be occasioned perhaps by the Reformers there as the broils which our Lord Jesus Christ saith he came to set in the world by the Gospel Possible also that good men out of inconsiderate Zeal should do something rashly And like enough the multitude which followed them as being fore-prepared with a just hatred of the Tyrannie of their Prelates and provoked by the opposition of the adverse Faction and emboldened by success ran a great deal farther then either wisemen could foresee or tell how to restrain them of all which distempers there is no reason to lay the blame upon the seekers of Reformation more than upon the Physicians of such Accidents as happen to the corrupted bodies which they have in Cure as for the pursuing our King even before his birth that which His Majesty speaks of some Puritans is over boldly by you referr'd to Mr. Knox and the Ministers that were Authors of Reformation in Scotland And Bishop Bilson to his Antagonist saith thus The Scots what have they done Besides placing the right Heir on the Throne and he an own Son when the Mother fled and forsook the Realm Be these those furious Attempts and Rebellions you talk of Dr. Rivet as he is quoted by Dr. Peter Du Moulin in his Answer to Philanax Anglicus imputes not the troubles in Scotland in the dayes of the Queen Regent and her Daughter Mary to the Reformed Religion but to the hot and audacious brains or to the bold and stirring nature of the Scottish Nation yea it shall be found as de Rivet observeth and we find it now saith Dr. Du Moulin that the light of Evangelical truth did very much mitigate the fierceness of that Nation and that those disorders as turbulent as they were are not comparable to those that were in former times in Scotland And lastly as to this particular hear what Mr. Cambden saith namely that the Confederacy of the Nobility of Scotland was not to be branded with the note of Rebellion which was made to no other purpose than to preserve the Kingdom as in Duty they ought to the Queen and her lawful Successors which they could not without injury to themselves and theirs suffer to be undermined by the practises of the Guises or so to be transferred to the French 3. Consid The late Civil Wars in England were not begun for the Extirpation of Episcopacy and Liturgy or the settlement of the Presbyterian Government The House of Commons in the year 1640. had but few I have heard not five Presbyterians in it Besides Mr. Richard Watson cited by the Author of the Friendly Debate * In the Appendix to the 3d. Part. and no Friend Iâ—le assure you to Presbyterie he saith in his History That when the English Commissioners came into Scotland after the War had been near a year in England and brought a Letter to the Assembly there from the Parliament of England they received no other Answer but this Gentlemen we are sorry for your Case but whereas your Letter saith you fight for the defence of the Protestant Religion you must needs think us blind that we see not your fighting to be for Civil disputes of the Law which we are not acquainted withall Go home and reconcile with the King he is a Gracious Prince and will receive you to his favour c. It seems by this passage that the War was not begun on the Accompt of Church Government or Liturgy Again Judge Jenkins in his Remonstrance tells the world the only